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PAX West 2019 Panel (August 30, 2019)
On August 30, 2019, a panel called "Life is Strange: Bringing Relatable Characters & Stories to Life" was held with Co-Creative Director Michel Koch, Voice-Over Director Philip Bache and Gonzalo Martin and Roman George, voices of Sean and Daniel Diaz from Life is Strange 2, during PAX West 2019 in Seattle, WA. The panel was moderated by Andrea Rene from What's Good Games and was followed by a Fan Meet and Greet in the evening. Description "Join Michel Koch, Co-Creative Director of Life is Strange 2, and the Voice Over cast of the game for an exclusive in-depth discussion where you will discover the stories behind the performances, and behind-the-scenes secrets of the research involved in creating the relatable characters, grounded settings and extraordinary events that define Life is Strange. The panel will be moderated by Andrea Rene, Co-Founder of What’s Good Games."PAX West schedule Video Life is Strange 2 Bringing Relatable Characters & Stories to Life (PAX West 2019) Transcript Andrea Rene: Hey everybody! How's it going? First day of PAX, hopefully you weren't out too late at the bars last night, or maybe you were because you love/hate yourself. (laughs) Welcome to the Life is Strange 2 panel. So we are super excited to be here today to talk about the relatable characters and bringing the universe of Life is Strange to life across this season. We've got a fantastic line-up here of folks, so I'm just gonna start by introducing myself - I'm Andrea Rene. If you've been to any of our - oh, thank you, Phil - if you've been to any of our Life is Strange panels in the last couple of years, you may have seen me moderating 'cause I'm such a huge fan of this franchise and everything that Dontnod is doing. If you haven't seen me at a panel before, maybe you have seen me on Kinda Funny Games or on my show "What's Good Games" - hopefully you guys can check those out. And without futher ado, I think I'm just going to go ahead and pass down to Michel, the director of the game, to kick off the introductions. Michel Koch: Hi guys, thanks for being here. So, sorry I'm the only French guy here, so you can hear that. Hopefully they (points to the others) will talk way better than me, they have good voices. So yes, I'm the Co-Creator/Director of the game - on Life is Strange 2 and before, on Life is Strange and Captain Spirit. Phil Bache: I'm Phil Bache. I'm the voice-over director and direct the performances from the actors, and I work alongside Michel and Dontnod to make that happen. Gonzalo Martin: Hey guys, thank you all so much for coming. I'm Gonzalo Martin and I play Sean Diaz. Roman George: I'm Roman George and I play Daniel Diaz in Life is Strange 2. Andrea Rene: Alright! And we do wanna give a shout out to everyone watching on Twitch of course. We know that there's a lot of people who can't be with us here in Seattle but are watching on the interwebs. I had the pleasure of working with both Michel and Phil on previous Life is Strange panels over the last couple of years, which has been awesome, but it's so great to have (...) today, and if you guys here on the audience wanna have a chance to maybe have a more close chat with them or perhaps take photos and stuff, they will be at the Life is Strange 2 party tonight. So we are doing the What's Good Games "Relax at PAX" (?) that's from 7 to 10 at (?). It's open to everybody, it's free admission and it's all ages until 9pm, so hopefully we'll be able to see you guys out there later. And we have some really cool giveaways (...). Probably gonna say that again at the end of the panel. Alright, so, who here (...) is caught up through Episode 4? (raises hand and some in the audience do as well) We know Episode 4 came recently out and there's a lot of games to play all the time, but we'll do out best to avoid major decision spoilers, specifically for Episode 4, but this is your fair warning that Episode 1 through 3 we're probably gonna touch ln some pretty heavy story beats. Because it will be really difficult to talk about these characters and what's happening in the season without us talking ahout what's happening in the season. So I just wanna give everybody watching and everybody in the room your official spoiler warning, but we'll do our best to protect what we can from Episode 4. Cool? We're all on agreement? Nobody left - excellent! So, speaking of this season, Michel, I think it would be a good idea to maybe just give some kind of a high level overview for people who maybe haven't even played this season yet, or only one or two episodes, about kinda where we're at right now. Michel Koch: Yep. I will try to avoid big spoilers. So, yes, for those of you who don't really know the game: The idea of Life is Strange 2 is that we're telling this story of those two brothers, Sean and Daniel Diaz. Sean is 16 years old, Daniel is 9 years old. They are living in Seattle with their father. They're Mexican-Americans. And then that incident happens where their father Esteban is shot by a police fficer on a police mistake, and that's when we reveal that the young brother, Daniel, has those superpowers of telekinesis, which kills the cop and puts them in a really bad situation where they are forced to flee the police because Sean thinks that there is no other way, that they would get arrested, that they would get, that they won't get a fair trial, so he just thinks quickly, irrationally and he just brings his brother with him and they try to run away with this crazy idea to reach Mexico where their father still owns a (...) of land. So the whole season is about their journey, them being chased by the police, on the run, forced to hide and to live on the outskirts of society. And that's the idea of the game, that they will be facing and meeting a lot of different characters on their way, trying to reach this goal. And Sean as a teenager is the only parent figure for Daniel, so the big idea of the game is really this theme of education where Sean just has to be responsible for Daniel, to teach him what's good, what's bad, and where he I think would basically still love to be a teenager but it just has to (...) with this bad situation. And yes, without spoiling more, they will face a lot of various difficult situations where we just want to show to the players just a big picture of the rural America, the different kind of outcasts, the different kind of characters you could meet on the road. Andrea Rene: It's really interesting hearing you speak about it after having Christian, you know, who was the lead writer on the project, talk about this last year now, you know, having four episodes out, this idea really of the road trip and how this season really embodies that, and we all knew that there was going to be tough stuff - because it's Life is Strange - but I don't think I personally anticipated just how different each episode would feel from each other, and I'd love to hear from you guys that have worked on it if there was any challenges that you have found, you know, kinda going from episode to episode, or if you were able to find those common threads. Phil Bache: I will say that something difficult was, like, when you run into all these different new places, more so even the characters, like even Finn, it's you got to meet them quick, you got to kind of like them quick. There’s got to be something about it and I felt like the writing on their part and the build-up of the characters and how they designed their interaction and the the interaction he would have with those characters, like each one and how they would play was... it's a difficult balance, but all the actors kind of brought something to each role - and especially Finn, like, Finn was great. For me, that’s the weird thing. I knew we would be traveling a lot. I was interested to see who would come come and go. Like, Finn kind of had the ending of one episode, you know, in the main episode, so it's like we got to stick with some people a little bit but overal I knew there was gonna be a lot of hello-goodbye situations, which was tough. Andrea Rene: Yeah, I'm gonna be honest. I don't know if any of you felt this way, I was unsure about Brody at first. I was like, 'Is he gonna break bad? Is this gonna be a bad thing?' Was anybody else getting that vibe from Brody? Yeah? A couple of you? I was so glad that he turned out to be a good guy. Phil Bache: While I was reading it, I was like: 'Please don't do this. Please don't do this.' Michel Koch: We didn't. Phil Bache: But I thought it was gonna be bad. I was it was gonna be like, you know: 'Come on into the (...)!' And I was like: 'Nooo!' Andrea Rene: Well, (...) when you stumble upon him in that market and he's looking at some very questionable things on his laptop, and I was like, 'Oh... No, please, this is too early. It's only, like, the beginning of the season.' But, Gonzalo, I wanna to kinda talk to you a litte bit about the character Sean. You know Michel was explaining how he kinda was thrust into this immense responsibility with his little brother and kind of having to figure out really on the fly about what am I going to do with what's in front of me. How did you find that as an actor when you were reading through the script for the first time? Gonzalo Martin: That's a really interesting question 'cause for me it was really a lot about reverse engeneering. This was the first voice-over gig I had ever done, so of course I was excited and (...) to get to work and do my lines. And of course the character I'm playing is a completely different headspace than I was at the moment. And you know, thanks to Phil, he directed me into the direction that I would get into Sean's headspace of 'Oh, I don't have everything good in life, and my dad just died, I have now to take care of my little brother and become a father basically when I'm 16.' So it was a lot of getting out of myself, being confident and excited doing this job, ans getting more into this character, and be down like Sean was through the entire series. Andrea Rene: Nice. Oh, I was just thinking, one of the major themes of the Life is Strange franchise is this idea of relatable charctes. And throughout, you know, the three iterations of Life is Strange that we've got, I think there's been characters that kind of touch a variety of us out there that are fans of this franchise, but Roman, you are a teenager, you play a young boy in the game - seems like you have something relatable there, but how did you deal with the idea that you're like, 'I'm kind of a superhero with these wild powers'? Roman George: When I first got the job - and it was also my first voice over gig - and when I read the script, it was like, 'Wow, I'm a superhero, I can have powers!' And that was actually really cool, and I enjoyed everything. Andrea Rene: Are you happy with the powers that they gave you, or would you have picked a different power for yourself? Roman George: I like this power. This power is (...). Andrea Rene: I mean, I would take it. I wouldn't kick it out of bed, you know what I mean? It's pretty great. I would like to maybe kind of give it back (?) to the realistic studies. So, clearly we are on the West coast of the United States. We obviously passed by Arcadia Bay, which is like a cool little moment in the game, but I really liked how different each of these places felt. Did you guys have a specific favorite place of the places we've seen so far? Phil Bache: I will say this, Michel has actually come over here a lot and done a lot of different, like, vacations around this area, and I think... Michel Koch: That's what's called work. Phil Bache: But I think all of that experience and that fascination of different culture, it's the idea of, like... If we were, if Americans were gonna tell this story of this area, we might not tell it so romantically, you know, it's like they have a different viewpoint of the different places. What I like is I felt like they captured more of that versus me, it's like I probably would have painted it in a different picture. And I always find that fascinating. There is a Will Smith film where he was like trying to get into the stock market... I forgot the name of the film... Pursuit of Happiness! But it was directed by a foreign film director, I think for the same reason, to tell that kind of story, I felt like it needed. Andrea Rene: Are we too close to that kind of a thing? We can't see it for its greatness? Phil Bache: Yeah, but favorite location... It's tough. Like, I really liked the crossing of paths that happen with Captain Spirit a lot... Michel Koch: (...) in Oregon. Phil Bache: ...because - that was Episode 2 - and I knew that, because we know Life is Strange, things are probably gonna get worse, so it was just for a moment to be like, 'Okay, we're at home, we're with their grandparents, Captain Spirit near by, I can chill out for a second.' Like, that's nice, because I know that it's like the (...) Michel Koch: I think, yeah, we've been doing a lot of travel in the United States with Raoul and Jean-Luc - they are the director and the writer -, there is something unique with this country, there is so many different parts of it, so many... You feel it in each state, you feel it's really different places. And that's something I think that works really well for us as a setting is that we can tell stories about a lot of different characters, a lot of different lifestyles. You have all those differences in this country that motivates us a lot. Because we think that we can talk about humanity maybe as a whole by using the United States, and that was really the goal of this game, of using this road trip approach, which can be also confusing, I know, for the player to have those different characters, different places that you just have for one episode and you leave behind. And I get that it can be hard to adjust, that you might want to be in your comfort zone by staying with those characters, but I think that is something that's important when you're traveling, where you just have to connect in a short amount of time. And you get good memories from those encounters, and that's something we wanted to have in this game, to just have all those memories of all those charctes that you meet, that create this journey for Sean and Daniel, and will shape them at the end of the game. Andrea Rene: It's a lot like being at PAX, right? YYou're here for a short amount of time and hope you're going to cross paths with someone that you'll connect with and maybe become friends online, and that becomes like a meaningful thing even though it was very brief, right? What about you two, did you guys have a favorite place? Phil Bache: He liked being locked up a lot in those scenes. (...) Gonzalo Martin: Those were the best ones, yeah. No, to pick up back on what Michel said, yeah, I would have to agree on that, I'd have to say that that's one of my favorite things about this Life is Strange game, the fact that it's, you know, on the road, it gives us the opportunity to constantly be on new settings, meeting new people from different walks of life. And like Phil said, I think it's cool that they're taking care of it, and it's not American developers doing it, because maybe the story would have been told from a different perspective that's not from an outsiders few. And I really like what they did with each person that we meet through the road, each setting that we go to - I don't wanna be biased, and it's not because I'm here in Seattle for the first time, but on Episode 1, that was, like the settings and the landscapes and everything and the music, that was definitely my favorite in comparison to all the other ones regarding to like the settings of the place. And then having to move from state to state allowed us to like meet, you know, 'What are the people from this state like? And what are their cultural differences from you know that we are from Seattle to Mexican-American kids. That's what I think is really cool about this game. Andrea Rene: Yeah, absolutely. I was really interested how it felt like a (...) side of Seattle I haven't seen. And I don't live here but I've been here several times for events and for PAX and for things like that, and I think a lot us who come here from out of state or out of town really only identify Seattle with like the Space Needle and Downtown, and everyone who's local is like, 'Yeah, that's just a tiny little part of our place we call home.' Michel Koch: As a small story, we are not allowed to put the Space Needle in the game because it's a copyright in buildings. Even if you wanted to show it, we can't. Phil Bache: Oh, that's funny. The Hollywood sign you gotta do the same thing. You can't put it. You gotta pay some guy who was smart enough to put it in there years ago. Andrea Rene: Oh, you can't really blame him, but it's kind of a bummer. Phil Bache: Why are you building this? You'll see... Andrea Rene: To charge people every time they photograph it. (...) Transcript Phil Bache: Roman George: Andrea Rene: Phil Bache: Michel Koch: I mean it's not that it's a need. I don't think that every video game needs to tackle those subjects. That's what's great with gaming nowadays, that it's such a big space where you can have all kind of stories of characters, of games, but I do think there is still a need to have some of... I think what we are trying to do is sometimes to talk about the people we're not talking about often enough. It's a really powerful medium where as a player you have interactivity, you are in the shoes of the charcter. And we think that putting the player in some situation that he might never experience himself and that he might not know much about himself, it can bring some awareness to some subjects we think works talking about. Just a quick example. For example, the drifters, the (...) in Episode 3, Finn, Cassidy and all the crew, those characters are based on people we did meet when we were traveling. And we were in... ... Andrea Rene: Have a great rest of your PAX, everybody! Gallery PAX Panel 1.jpg PAX Panel 2.jpg External Links * Official announcement tweet * Twitch stream References Category:Behind the Scenes (Season 2) Category:Panels and Interviews (Season 2) Category:Behind the Scenes (Season 2) Category:Panels and Interviews (Season 2)